Japan Press Weekly

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2013 December 4 - 10 [POLITICS]

Block Abe’s attempt to turn Japan into war-fighting nation

Akahata editorial

December 8 marked the 72nd anniversary of Imperial Japan’s declaration of the Pacific War. On this day in1941, Japanese military invaded the Malay Peninsula (then held by the U.K.) and Hawaii simultaneously and started the war against the world following its previous invasion of the Korean Peninsula and China. Just before the anniversary, the Abe Shinzo Cabinet forced through the Diet two bills: a bill to establish a Japanese version of the U.S. National Security Council which will become the military headquarters in time of war; and a state secrets bill which will keep the general public in the dark in order to push ahead with the agenda of Japan’s NSC. Far from showing remorse for the past war of aggression, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is attempting to turn Japan back into a war-fighting nation, which is unacceptable for people opposing war both at home and abroad.

Going against the promise of ‘No more war’

Japan in 1931 started an aggressive war in North East China, then called Manchuria, and kept fighting until the end of the Asia-Pacific War in 1945. The 15-year-long war devastated Japan and a wide area of Asia, killing over 3.1 million Japanese and more than 20 million people in the Asia-Pacific region. After the war, the Japanese government admitted its responsibility for the aggressive war and “resolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government” in the preamble to the Japanese Constitution. This is the starting point of Japan’s participation in the post-war international society.

The Abe Cabinet’s forcible passage and enactment of the NSC bill and the state secrets bill clearly go against the above-mentioned resolution.

Imitating the NSC of the U.S. that pushed for and controlled the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Abe Cabinet seeks to establish a Japanese version of wartime diplomatic and military headquarters consisting of only the prime minister, the chief cabinet secretary, and the foreign and defense ministers. This is a revival of the imperial headquarters that ran the past wars.

Soon after the enactment of a law on creating a Japanese version of the NSC, the Abe Cabinet held the first NSC meeting behind closed doors. The NSC intends to discuss strategy on national security and the new National Defense Program Guidelines behind closed doors, clearly indicating the possibility that the Abe government will march ahead on a “road to war” without providing information to the public.

The state secrets protection law bears striking similarities to the wartime National Defense Security Law which effectively covered the ears and the eyes of the general public before and during the war. In March 1941, right before Japan launched the Asia-Pacific War, the then Japanese government created the defense security law which was compiled from various legislations for the protection of military secrets. The 1941 law replaced the secrets protection framework which used to focus on only military-related secrets with one covering “a broad range of state information, such as diplomacy and finance, which, the government claimed, were needed to protect information from other nations for security reasons”. This new framework was applied to the entire Japanese population. If a person happened to snap a photo or draw a picture of Japanese military troops passing along a street, that person was arrested.

The secrets protection law shows the grave danger that the range of designation of “special secret” can be expanded without limit by just using national security needs as the justification and that severe punishment will be imposed not only on public workers but also on the general public.

For protecting and making full use of the Japanese Constitution

Before and during the war under the Imperial Japanese government, the Japanese Communist Party waged a tenacious struggle opposing Japan’s war of aggression and calling for implementation of people-oriented policies. This struggle contributed to incorporating in the current Constitution principles of renunciation of war and popular sovereignty.

In order to protect and make full use of the key constitutional principles of people’s sovereignty, basic human rights, and pacifism, the secrets protection law must be revoked.